Takealot Group is inviting suitably qualified organisations to express interest in providing entrepreneurship-focused training and support to participants in its Personal Shoppers Programme.

Personal Shoppers are described as community-based micro-entrepreneurs who help customers access e-commerce by:

• Placing and managing orders.
• Supporting payment and delivery queries.
• Building trusted local customer relationships.

The programme aims to strengthen their commercial capability, income-generation potential and ability to operate sustainable micro-enterprises.

WHAT TAKEALOT IS LOOKING FOR

Takealot is seeking organisations that can provide practical entrepreneurship and sales-focused training and participant support.

The appointed service provider or panel of providers may be required to:

Entrepreneurship & Sales Training

Design or refine practical, non-accredited entrepreneurship and sales training specifically tailored to Personal Shoppers.

Accessible Delivery

Deliver training through:

• Mobile-first approaches.
• Virtual delivery.
• Hybrid delivery.
• In-person methods.

The training should be accessible to participants across different locations.

Participant Support

Provide support covering:

• Participant onboarding.
• Engagement.
• Learner administration.
• Ongoing coaching. 

Practical Business Tools

Training and support should address practical areas including:

• Sales growth.
• Customer service.
• Digital marketing.
• Cash-flow discipline.
• E-commerce fulfilment challenges. 

Monitoring & Reporting

Providers should be able to track:

• Participation.
• Progress.
• Programme outcomes.

They will also need to provide clear implementation reporting.

WHO SHOULD EXPRESS INTEREST?

Organisations should be able to demonstrate relevant capability in most of the following areas:

• Entrepreneurship, SMME, sales, customer-service or e-commerce training.
• Delivery to geographically dispersed participants.
• Experience working with township, rural or underserved communities.
• Mobile-first, low-data, virtual or blended learning.
• Learner support and administration.
• Cohort administration.
• Programme management.
• Monitoring and outcome reporting.
• Transformation credentials.
• Local delivery networks.
• Ability to scale delivery. 

This means the opportunity is particularly relevant to training providers, entrepreneurship-support organisations and organisations with established community delivery networks.

WHAT MUST BE SUBMITTED?

Applicants must submit a concise capability statement of no more than two pages, excluding an optional company profile.

The capability statement must contain:

1. Organisation Details

• Registered company name.
• Registration number.
• Primary contact details.

2. Organisational Profile

Provide a short profile of the organisation and a summary of the services it can provide.

3. Relevant Assignments

Provide up to three relevant assignments, including:

• Client.
• Scope of work.
• Participant scale.
• Outcomes achieved.

4. Delivery Footprint

Describe the proposed delivery footprint and the organisation's ability to support distributed participants.

5. B-BBEE

Provide:

• Current B-BBEE status.
• Black ownership percentage, where applicable.

6. NDA

Confirm that the organisation is willing to sign Takealot Group's Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

IMPORTANT — WHAT NOT TO SUBMIT

At the EOI stage, applicants should not submit:

• A detailed technical proposal.
• A detailed implementation plan.
• Pricing.

These will only be requested through the formal RFP process if the organisation progresses to that stage.

This is important because organisations should keep the initial response focused on capability, relevant experience and delivery capacity, rather than spending time preparing a full bid prematurely.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE EOI?

The process has four stages:

Stage 1 — Expression of Interest

Takealot reviews submissions for relevance and apparent capability.

Stage 2 — NDA

Organisations invited to proceed will receive an NDA for signature.

Stage 3 — Access to the RFP

Once the NDA has been fully executed, Takealot will issue the detailed RFP and supporting information.

Stage 4 — Formal Bid

Only submissions made in response to the formal RFP will be evaluated as proposals.

IMPORTANT: THIS IS NOT YET A TENDER

Takealot explicitly states that this EOI is a:

Market-engagement and pre-qualification step

and is not:

• An RFP.
• A tender offer.
• A commitment by Takealot to appoint a provider. 

Takealot may invite all, some or none of the respondents to proceed to the NDA and RFP stage and reserves the right to amend, suspend or cancel the process.

Deadline

18 September 2026 at 17:00

PRACTICAL GUIDANCE FOR APPLICANTS

A capability statement should make it easy for Takealot to answer a simple question:

Can this organisation credibly deliver entrepreneurship and sales support to a geographically dispersed group of community-based micro-entrepreneurs at scale?

The strongest evidence will therefore come from the organisation's previous assignments, especially where these demonstrate:

• Entrepreneurship or SMME development.
• Sales and customer-service training.
• E-commerce or digital-business support.
• Township, rural or underserved-community delivery.
• Mobile-first or blended learning.
• Large or geographically distributed cohorts.
• Measurable participant outcomes.
• Monitoring and reporting capability.

The EOI asks for up to three relevant assignments, so organisations should use those examples strategically rather than providing a long list of unrelated projects.

DELIVERY MODEL

Applicants should be prepared to demonstrate their ability to deliver through mobile-first, low-data, virtual or blended learning models, while also supporting participant engagement and coaching.

This is particularly relevant because the Personal Shoppers Programme serves community-based micro-entrepreneurs, meaning delivery capability across dispersed participant groups is an explicit requirement.

B-BBEE & TRANSFORMATION

The EOI specifically asks applicants to provide their:

• Current B-BBEE status.
• Black ownership percentage, where applicable.

It also seeks organisations with strong transformation credentials and scalable local delivery networks. 

For South African training and enterprise-development organisations, this is therefore an important part of the capability submission.

COMMERCIAL TERMS

No pricing should be submitted at the EOI stage.

The detailed commercial requirements will be provided through the formal RFP to respondents who proceed beyond the NDA stage.

COSTS

Respondents are responsible for all costs associated with preparing and submitting the EOI.

CONFIDENTIALITY & DATA

Organisations progressing to the next stage will be required to sign Takealot Group's NDA.

Applicants are also responsible for ensuring that information submitted is:

• Accurate.
• Authorised.
• Free of undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Personal information will be handled in accordance with applicable data-protection requirements. 

KEY DATES

EOI Issued: 11 September 2026

EOI Closing: 18 September 2026 at 17:00

NDA Stage: Following Takealot's review of EOI submissions

Detailed RFP: Issued to respondents that progress after the NDA stage